Research has shown that neoliberal economic policies may increase violence. In this study we extend this logic to create a “neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis.” We test this hypothesis using two global measures of neoliberalism (the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the Index of Economic Freedom) and 2014 homicide rates for 142 nations. Regression analysis provides little support for the neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis using the global indexes. However, when examining factors that make up these indexes we discover that as size of government and tax burden become more neoliberal across nations, homicide rates increase. A post hoc exploratory analysis suggests that the association between government size, spending, taxes, and homicide is largely indirect and manifests through economic inequality and poverty. That is, neoliberal government policies appear to increase poverty and inequality which, in turn, lead to higher rates of homicide. We situate our findings within the broader literature on neoliberalism and violence and suggest directions for future research.

中文翻译：

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探索新自由主义与凶杀之间的关系：跨国视角

研究表明，新自由主义经济政策可能会增加暴力。在这项研究中，我们扩展了这一逻辑以创建“新自由主义-凶杀假说”。我们使用新自由主义的两个全球衡量标准（世界经济自由指数和经济自由指数）和 2014 年 142 个国家的凶杀率来检验这一假设。回归分析对使用全球指数的新自由主义-凶杀假说几乎没有提供支持。然而，在检查构成这些指数的因素时，我们发现随着各国政府规模和税收负担变得更加新自由主义，凶杀率会增加。事后探索性分析表明，政府规模、支出、税收和凶杀案之间的关联在很大程度上是间接的，并通过经济不平等和贫困表现出来。那是，新自由主义政府的政策似乎加剧了贫困和不平等，进而导致更高的杀人率。我们将我们的发现放在关于新自由主义和暴力的更广泛的文献中，并为未来的研究提出建议。